Automatic Negative Thoughts - ANTs

ANTs recruit other ANTs!

When ants find a food source that is helpful, useful, or good for them, they go back to the colony and recruit other ants to bring the bounty back to the nest. They found something worth feeding on, so they bring more ants to the source.

Now think about ANTs as thoughts. Automatic Negative Thoughts.

The question becomes: what is the ANT receiving in return for showing up in your mind?

If you feed it, it will go get friends. If you starve it, eventually it has to go find another food source.

The first ANT may be automatic. What happens next is trainable.

Imagine standing over a golf shot with water in play. Maybe it is a tee shot. Maybe it is an approach into a green. You step into the shot and, without asking for it, the thought shows up:

“Don’t hit it in the water.”

There is the ANT.

You did not necessarily choose the thought. It just appeared. That is part of what makes it automatic.

But what happens next?

Maybe the thought brings with it an image of the last time you hit a golf ball into the water. You can see the ball flying toward the hazard. You remember the splash. You remember how you felt. Maybe you even remember what happened to your score after that.

Now the first ANT has found food.

The image itself is still just a thought. It is automatic. It is negative. It is a thought.

The danger comes when the image becomes a movie.

The splash leads to the score. The score leads to another round where you made the same mistake. Then another memory shows up. Then maybe the thought changes from, “Don’t hit it in the water,” to, “I always do this.”

Another ANT.

Then maybe, “I suck at this.”

Another ANT.

“Why am I even playing this game?”

Another one.

“I should sell my clubs.”

And now the whole colony is moving.

Think honestly about your own game for a moment. When one negative thought shows up, what usually follows it? What thoughts tend to travel together for you?

This is where the mental side of golf gets interesting, because the body often begins responding to the movie playing in the mind. Your breathing changes. Your muscles tighten. Your attention shifts away from the target and toward the danger. Instead of seeing the fairway, you see the water. Instead of thinking about the shot you want to hit, you begin preparing for the shot you are afraid of hitting.

The water did not suddenly become bigger.

Your attention did.

And attention is food.

The more attention you give the ANT, the more believable the story can become.

“I always hit it in the water here.”

Do you?

Always?

Or does it simply feel that way because your mind has become very good at collecting evidence for the story it is already telling?

That distinction matters.

One bad shot does not define you. One mistake does not establish your identity. But if you repeatedly replay the mistake, attach meaning to it, and then search your memory for more proof, you reinforce the belief.

Now you are not just remembering a bad shot.

You are beginning to identify with it.

“I’m bad on holes with water.”

“I can’t hit this shot under pressure.”

“I always fall apart here.”

The ANT is no longer simply crawling through your mind. You have started feeding it, allowing it to feast. Those thoughts become a belief!

Then golf does what golf does. Water ball!

You are angry. Maybe frustrated. Maybe scared. Maybe all three.

You step onto the next tee, swing with almost no thought at all, and pipe one 275 yards right down the middle.

Golf has a sense of humor.

And now you have another choice.

You could recognize what happened, take the good shot for what it is, regulate yourself, and return to your process which you have been honing and can trust.

You could get overconfident, abandon the routine, and send the next shot somewhere it has no business going.

Or you could stay emotionally attached to the previous mistakes and continue the cycle until you mentally check out of the round.

So where is the consistency?

It’s one thought away. That’s it!

Not because one magical thought fixes your golf game, but because the thought YOU CHOOSE to feed influences what happens next.

The goal is not to eliminate ANTs.

Most of us cannot.

The goal is to stop feeding them.

When the ANT shows up, notice it.

There it is.

You do not have to fight it. You do not have to argue with it. You do not have to be upset with yourself for thinking it.

Just notice it before the image becomes a movie.

Then breathe.

In — 2, 3.

Hold — 2, 3.

Out — 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Give your body a chance to regulate before asking your mind to perform.

Then intentionally insert the pre-planned thought you need to lock back in.

Not fake confidence. Not some ridiculous statement you do not believe. The thought should be useful, believable, and connected to the shot you are trying to hit.

“I’ve done this a thousand times.”

“Smooth tempo.”

“Center of the fairway.”

“Pick the target and commit.”

Or maybe humor is what helps you loosen your grip on the moment.

“My grandma could make this shot.”

What thought helps you play freely? (Pro Tip: WRITE DOWN 5 and put them in your bag!)

What phrase brings your attention back to the shot in front of you?

What belief helps you trust the work you have already done?

The purpose is not to pretend the water does not exist.

The purpose is to stop feeding it with your attention.

See the shot you want to hit.

Commit to it.

Then trust your body to perform the skill you have trained.

You do not need to control every thought that enters your mind.

You need to decide which thoughts get fed.

The first thought may be automatic.

The next intentionally placed thought is trainable.

That’s The Mental Side of Golf.